


light me up, burn me through

by barelyprolific



Category: Bob's Burgers (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Making Out, Marijuana, No Sex, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Recreational Drug Use, Underage Drug Use, it's not even that bad but there is drug use and kiddos drugs are like bad or whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:29:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29211942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barelyprolific/pseuds/barelyprolific
Summary: Tina finds Zeke alone under the pier.
Relationships: Tina Belcher/Zeke (Bob's Burgers)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 28





	light me up, burn me through

**Author's Note:**

> Hm here is another thing I wrote.

The sun is baking the sand, which in turn is burning Tina’s feet. One of her flip flops was lost to the ocean earlier in the day, the other flung out after it by one of her unhelpful siblings. Tina’s not sure who actually threw it, Gene or Louise, but she has no shoes either way so she’s pretty sure it doesn’t matter. She walks along the waterline, letting the cool waves lap at her ankles and sooth her soles, her destination the only real shade on the beach. 

Underneath the pier is dark and musty, smelling like the worst parts of low tide and scattered with washed in trash. Tina picks her way through it, ears turned back towards the shouting and laughter she’s missing out on while her eyes adjust to the suddenly dimmed lighting. Further back, there’s something orange, glowing; Tina thinks she can make out the shape of someone half hiding behind a pillar. 

Zeke, she thinks, her mouth twisting downward. So he _hadn’t_ gone to pee in a tide pool.

“Are you seriously smoking, Zeke?” Tina calls in the direction of the orange glow, picking her way carefully through the cold, mushy sand towards it. “I know you like pretending to be a bad boy, but cigarettes? I thought you were smarter than that!” A particularly bright indignation burns in her chest, something like betrayal. 

She hears Zeke swear, confirming it’s him with that deep twang that still hasn’t faded, and the orange glow goes out. Tina’s close enough now she thinks she can find him without it, her eyes picking up differences in the darkness without too much strain. The smell is different here, skunkier, and her nose wrinkles. 

“Zeke,” she says again, sharply, and then yelps when a palm covers her mouth and she’s dragged back against a solid, warm, bare chest. There’s a few seconds of her brain short circuiting, and then Tina reacts, pushing his arm away and turning to shove at his chest. “Zeke!”

“Shh, girl, shh.” Zeke’s hands wrap around her wrists to keep her from shoving at him again, grip loose. 

“You’re smoking!”

“Yeah, but not cigarettes!”

“What?” Confused, Tina relaxes, her fingers flexing on Zeke’s chest but otherwise remaining still. It takes her a second, and then it clicks. “Marijuana?!”

“Shh, Tina!” Zeke covers her mouth again, and she can make out the shape of his head in the dark, turning back towards the sunny line of sand to scan it. He lowers his hand again after a second, his own shoulders easing. “I don’t want to have to share with Tammy. She’s a huge bogart.” 

“Bogart?” Tina realizes she’s still got her hands on Zeke’s bare chest and snatches them back, tucking them into her armpits with her arms crossed. 

“Keeps it all to herself. Tammy does not puff, puff, pass.” Zeke chuckled. “I can’t believe you call it marijuana. Only you, T-bird.” 

“Well, that’s what it is.”

“Yeah, if you're a hundred.” 

Tina doesn’t have a comeback for that. It’s not the first time one of her classmates has implied she’s an old lady. It always stings a little when Zeke does it, though. Zeke’s supposed to _like_ her.

“I didn’t know you or Tammy smoked...weed,” Tina does say. “Does Jimmy Junior?”

Zeke snorts, mutters something Tina can’t quite make out before he answers her. “We all do, pretty much. Me, J-Ju, Tammy, Jocelyn. Darryl, sometimes. The whole gang.” 

“Oh.” Tina frowns. “I thought I was part of the gang.”

Zeke doesn’t say anything at first, and Tina feels her cheeks getting hot. When he does speak, his voice is soft. 

“Not when it comes to doin’ bad stuff, Tina. We all know you only break the rules for your brother and sister. And that’s cool! But nobody wants to invite a narc to the party.”

“I’m not a narc!” Tina’s hands ball into fists in her armpits, uncomfortable, and so she drops them to her sides. Her cheeks feel hot and there’s a huge lump in her throat. She’s so _sick_ of getting left out of things by people who are supposed to be her friends. It was something Tina had hoped would stop after they started high school, but two years in and it keeps happening. She would have said no, but they should have asked. “For your information, Zeke, I sold marij--weed. One summer, before _eighth grade._ ”

Zeke has the audacity to chuckle. 

“Yeah, Gene’s told me the blueberry story.” The way he says it, Tina is struck by a horrifying thought.

“Have you smoked with Gene?”

The silence her question gets is answer enough. Tina pushes Zeke again, hard, and he stumbles backwards before catching himself. 

“With my brother. You’ve gotten high with my brother but you never even asked me, Zeke?”

“You would have said no to me anyway!”

“So what?”

“So I don’t ask you to do anything I know you’d rather do with Jimmy Junior!”

Tina has never heard Zeke yell in anger. Her eyes get wide, and she swallows, but she doesn’t move away from him. Her heart is hammering louder in her ears than the waves crashing against the shore. 

“Well, maybe you’re wrong about things I’d rather do with Jimmy Junior, nowadays.” Tina’s voice comes out shaking. Zeke snorts again. She wishes she could make out more of his expression than shadows. 

“You wanna smoke this joint with me, huh? That what you’re saying, girl?”

“I--do. Yeah. Yeah, I do.” Tina says it before her brain realizes she’s going to. At least she manages to stun Zeke, too. 

“Do what?” 

It’s such a familiar phrase from him that Tina smiles. “You heard me.”

Zeke doesn’t say anything. After a minute of quiet rustling and Tina fidgeting in the dark, the orange glow appears again. It burns brighter for a few seconds, and Tina can hear Zeke inhaling. The glow moves, and Zeke breathes out. That skunky smell fills the air. 

Tina jumps when Zeke’s hand finds hers, raising it up so that he can slip the joint between her fingers. 

“So I just… Breathe in. Yep. No problem.”

Her hand is trembling as Tina raises the joint to her lips. The end is a little damp against them. Even though she can’t really see him, Tina looks towards where she thinks Zeke’s eyes might be as she breathes in, slowly, deeply. She breathes in and in, her mouth filling with a grassy tasting smoke that burns its way down her throat and lungs. The cough takes her by surprise, Tina’s hand flying away from her mouth as she starts hacking. 

Zeke’s hand is on her back, rubbing gently, his other hand taking the joint from her. 

“That’s on me,” he says apologetically. “I should have warned you to keep your hit small.”

Tina’s eyes are stinging and her head is swimming from the coughing. She puts a hand on Zeke’s shoulder to steady herself. 

“You like that?”

“I do.” Zeke chuckles. “Once you feel it, it feels great. And you get used to the smoking part. Learn how to breathe in. Or…” He trails off, chuckles. Tina imagines he’s shaking his head--it’s that kind of chuckle. 

“Or what?” She’s not sure why she whispers the question.

“Well, we could try shotgunnin’. Since you’re...trying new things, and all.”

“What is that?” Zeke’s shoulder is so warm, and so firm. Even at ease, she can feel the muscle underneath her fingertips. Tina knows she should move her hand away. When she does, though, she’ll go back to not being able to see Zeke, not knowing where he is. She curls her fingers slightly, leaves her hand there.

When Zeke answers her, his voice is closer to her ear, close enough that his breath against it makes her shiver. It’s definitely the sensation, and not the hint of roughness in his voice. 

“Shotgunnin’s where someone takes a hit, and then… breathes the smoke into another person’s mouth.” 

Tina tries to picture it. Zeke taking a hit, breathing in, and then getting close enough to… Well, it’d almost be like they were…

“Like kissing?”

“That’s right.” Zeke chuckles again. It sound different right next to her ear. “I know you like kissin’.”

Tina does like kissing. She even likes kissing Zeke. His lips are always a little chapped, firm but yielding. Or at least, they have been the few times they’ve been pressed against Tina’s. 

She licks her lips.

“We could try that.”

When Zeke brings his hand up to cup her jaw, Tina startles a little. His voice is in her ear again, though, low and just a little rough with that drawl of his. “Shh. Easy, T-Bird. Easy. You know I’d never do nothin’ to hurt you.”

Tina does know that. She nods, into his palm, and feels him pull back, feels him raise his other hand. Her eyes catch on the red glow of the end of the joint as Zeke raises it to where his mouth must be. It glows brighter for a few seconds, bright enough to make Zeke’s dark eyes shine. He drags in slow and deep; where her hand is on Zeke’s shoulder, she can feel his chest swell slightly. Then he lowers the joint again, and Tina’s knees suddenly feel in danger of liquifying. 

She’s not expecting the gentle drag of Zeke’s thumb over her bottom lip, so she gasps, lips parting, and then--

Then--

Zeke’s lips are close enough she can feel the heat of them, but not quite touching hers. His breath is warm as it pushes into her mouth, and Tina breathes in automatically, a sharp suck of air that tapers into something slower and a little shaky. Her eyes flutter closed behind her glasses, then open almost immediately as she feels Zeke start to pull away. Going on instinct, Tina slides her hand from his shoulder to the back of his neck and drags him down. 

Their mouths smash together awkwardly at first, teeth clacking once. She hasn’t kissed him since he grew taller than her, doesn’t know the angle. It doesn’t take more than a beat of Tina’s heart before Zeke catches on to what’s happening, though. His hand tangles in her hair, his head tips just right, and their lips are slotting together like puzzle pieces. Zeke’s are just like Tina remembered, and she teases his bottom one with her tongue until he opens his mouth with a groan and lets her deepen it. She kisses him until her head is swimming and her lungs feel tight, and then breaks away, panting. 

“I liked that,” she gets out between harsh breaths. “Can we do it again?”

She feels Zeke’s fingers comb through her hair, and grins at his huff of laughter. 

“Hell yeah.”

When they stumble out from under the pier, it’s because the water’s up to their ankles, and Tina can hear her siblings calling her name. Her lips feel swollen and she knows her hair is sticking up wildly, but there’s a warm glow in her chest that makes her not particularly care at the way Gene and Louise stare at the sight of her holding hands with Zeke. 

“And just what have you two been up to?” Gene asks, his hands on his hips, eyebrows so high his bangs cover them. “You smell like a coupla horny skunks.”

“Zeke’s coming back to the diner for a burger,” Tina says, ignoring her brother as best she can with burning cheeks. 

“Whatever you say, Pepe.” There’s a smirk on both her siblings’ faces that tells Tina all she needs to know about how her evening is going to go. She grips Zeke’s hand a little tighter as they start picking their way back up the beach. They’ve only made it a few steps when Tina’s reminded of why she sought refuge under the pier in the first place, just as Zeke seems to notice...

“Tina, girl, where are your shoes?” 

**Author's Note:**

> Yep. Apparently this is a thing I'm doing now. Writing Bob's Burgers fic. 
> 
> Let me know what you think, please.


End file.
